Probably extracting two tiny data points from the 80s Transformers comics and extrapolating that into a complete horological/timekeeping system for the Cybertronian race.

In base forty-eight.

And it worked.

Just looking at the size of the largest known star, VY Canis Majoris, and trying to figure out how to express it.

OK, powers of two thousand:

~80 microns, width of a human hair.
Two thousand times bigger
7 inches: Hot dog size, or a biggish hamburger.
Two thousand times bigger
1/5 of a mile, about four and a half city blocks in Manhattan.
Two ( Read more... )

Got bored today and slapped together a highly self-referential spreadsheet calculator to answer the question of what the best way to invest in the local real estate market was over a six-year period, assuming a grocery/living budget of $20,000 per year after accommodation and investment costs ( Read more... )

The recent/ongoing/upcoming house price crash in America will, as a side-effect, produce excellent test data for my real estate algorithm, should I consider buying into the US market ( Read more... )

Found the Investors Club, Australian edition, on the web today ( Read more... )

One side-effect of the near-parity of the Australian and American dollars (we're on about 88 US cents at the moment) is that some items are now cheaper to import than buy locally ( Read more... )

Storage through the ages - a look back and a guide for the technologically disinclined.

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Sigma sub zero super four ecks bang.

I'll have to make a note.

Vorns and breems are two fictional units of time used in Transformers media, or were back in the 80s. They were originally just made up pretty much on the spot by the writers, with a vorn being around 83 years long and a breem about 8.3 minutes.

So I was playing around with them a couple of years back, ( and noticed something odd. )

I forgot to mention - while we were out at the movies, we wandered through the Freo markets and I picked up one of the inside-out Magic Balls toys for three bucks, at the place which was selling laser pointers, glowing plastic thingies, and genuine Binaltech imports (expensive, though).

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